Hey!!! Wait a minute!!!

[funkytuba]

When did I get up over 1000 posts?

I guess it must have been during my Noxx.


WOO HOO!!! I'M OVER 1000 posts!!!

Somebody touch me.

[funkytuba]

I think it was this one. (http://zefrank.com/bulletin/showthread.php?s=&postid=129826#post129826)

[priceyfatprude]

*touches you*

[Hermione]

congrats:)

[zenbabe]

Get a life........

[chuckie egg]

..... wise words from a wise lady

[lvlycwgirl]

Congrats! I'm still waiting to break 100 !! :0)

[LadyCrow]

http://home.wanadoo.nl/mr.atari/collector/touch-me.jpg

:cool:

[nycwriters]

http://www.sagebrushmall.com/jpegs/fireworks.jpg

[sparticle]

Originally posted by funkytuba
When did I get up over 1000 posts?

I guess it must have been during my Noxx.


WOO HOO!!! I'M OVER 1000 posts!!!

Somebody touch me.

At the rate I'm going, I'll overtake you in a week or two. :D

[Willow Sylph]

Funkytuba - Thank you for allowing me to touch you :D
Sparticle- I'm so jealous. I've been here two weeks longer than you but you've surpassed me in posts. I'm such a loser! lol. :)

[Smartypants]

Originally posted by sparticle
At the rate I'm going, I'll overtake you in a week or two. :D

LOL! OK, sparticle, fess up. How many times this week have you looked at your profile to check your daily average?

(Personally, I'm relieved mine has finally dropped from MY first week. The number had an embarrassing stench of "no life" emanating from it. Now I tell myself it just shows how I've learned to incorporate zefrank into my healthy, well-rounded involvement in the world around me!) ;)

[Willow Sylph]

(Personally, I'm relieved mine has finally dropped from MY first week. The number had an embarrassing stench of "no life" emanating from it. Now I tell myself it just shows how I've learned to incorporate zefrank into my healthy, well-rounded involvement in the world around me!)

Is that how it works Mr. Smartypants??

[sparticle]

Originally posted by Smartypants
LOL! OK, sparticle, fess up. How many times this week have you looked at your profile to check your daily average?

(Personally, I'm relieved mine has finally dropped from MY first week. The number had an embarrassing stench of "no life" emanating from it. Now I tell myself it just shows how I've learned to incorporate zefrank into my healthy, well-rounded involvement in the world around me!) ;)

There's a name for it -- I think I have that thing that makes people write compulsively. There was an article on it in TIME a few weeks ago -- I'm not kidding.

If you think I'm bad on the message boards you should see my personal correspondence. I have one friend who keeps threatening to publish me in volumes! LOL

And this is in ADDITION to a life that includes a spouse, teenagers, a career and a social life. But nothing interferes with what's truly important to me. If I find my writing falling off, the husband has to go. :D

[Willow Sylph]

But nothing interferes with what's truly important to me. If I find my writing falling off, the husband has to go.

It's good to see you have your priorities in tact, Sparticle. :)

[LadyCrow]

This was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the subject line:

http://www.80stees.com/images/products/Toga_picture_link.jpg

Otis Day & the Knights rocked!

:D

Pax,
Andrea

[sparticle]

//Otis Day & the Knights rocked!//

heh heh heh -- you know it, sister!

[sparticle]

Originally posted by Willow Sylph
It's good to see you have your priorities in tact, Sparticle. :)

Especially since there's no tact in my priorities! :D

[Smartypants]

Originally posted by Willow Sylph
Is that how it works Mr. Smartypants??

I hope you didn't take that the wrong way! My very full life is more greatly enriched having found this place. I wsa just suggesting that sparticle and I seem to have had similar initial zefrank experiences.

As for the "no-life" comment, that's not MY opinion. Just don't solicit the opinion of my friends and neighbors who get that look of pity and concern on their faces whenever I start going on and on about how enamored I am of zefrank.com (and you all).
:D

[sparticle]

Originally posted by Smartypants
I hope you didn't take that the wrong way! My very full life is more greatly enriched having found this place. I wsa just suggesting that sparticle and I seem to have had similar initial zefrank experiences.

As for the "no-life" comment, that's not MY opinion. Just don't solicit the opinion of my friends and neighbors who get that look of pity and concern on their faces whenever I start going on and on about how enamored I am of zefrank.com (and you all).
:D

I haven't told Mr. Sparticle about this site, because the doctor cautioned him about that eye-rolling thing, and I would hate to have to read everything out loud to him; I haven't got all day.

LOL

[daverbee]

Believe it or not, this place helps me work!
Whenever I'm doing any laminating, it involves coating the plywood and laminate with contact cement and then watching it dry. That gets pretty old after a while, so it's nice to have sometrhing to keep me from going stir crazy here in the shop.
Can't remember when I got over 1000. It just happened one day not too long ago.

**************

Edited to say:
Holy crap! Just looked at my profile! 17.5 posts per day! That's a lotta laminating!

[Smartypants]

I learned after the first week here that sharing my excitement about the place had to be toned a bit when every time I answered the phone, the voices at the other end began their conversations like this:

"Whatchya doin'? zefrank again?"

"Are you still on zefrank, or do you want to go to the movies?"

"Can I ask you a question, or would it interrupt your message board activities?"

"Listen to me carefully. Could you log off of zefrank for just a moment so I can have your full attention?"

Things are better now. All you zemonkeys constitute my "secret life." shhhh.

:D :D

[sparticle]

Well, it helps me work, too. F'rinstance, Avalon snagged one of my necklaces the other day, and I got so excited about it that now I am doing a whole line of that piece in all colors. It was a real boost, and I had been sitting on my caboose moping because nobody likes me (I do this periodically, and it usually takes either a burst of positive attention or a good swift crack on the noggin to get me out of it, depending on what the reason). So I was grateful AND inspired, and I found it all right here on zefrank.com.

My friend, he who receives my voluminous correspondence, he who shall hereinafter be known as Long John Quicksilver The Gentleman Pirate, or The Gentleman Pirate for short, is usually my cheerleader and sometimes wielder of the 2 x 4 for noggin smacking purposes. He pointed out that interacting with the other board monkeys was probably good for my writing chops.

Which would be great if I would ever get off my arse and submit anything for publication, and I told him so.


The Gentleman Pirate told me to quit whining.

See how that works? Cuddle- SMASH -- depending on the need, repeat as needed. LOL

[Coffee]

Originally posted by lvlycwgirl
Congrats! I'm still waiting to break 100 !! :0)

your there!!!

Congrats to all the fellow Ze secret lifers making important post milestones.

[Smartypants]

Originally posted by sparticle
Which would be great if I would ever get off my arse and submit anything for publication, and I told him so.


Ain't that the big problem?? I need to get off my butt as well and start submitting stuff, but...

With so many writers online, maybe there are places that we can suggest and encourage each other to submit. Is there already a thread here like that that's gone dormant and I've missed?

I don't know what kind of stuff you write, but my stuff (mostly about travel), often generates positive feedback about how entertaining it is along with the judgement that it is complelety inappropriate for publication.

Anyone interested in a thread for posting pieces for suggestions of publications and submission strategies?

[sparticle]

Originally posted by Smartypants
I don't know what kind of stuff you write, but my stuff (mostly about travel), often generates positive feedback about how entertaining it is along with the judgement that it is complelety inappropriate for publication.



Well, see, that's it, right there. My friends and family love my stuff, and i am always being told that I ought to write professionally, but the difficulty there is that my stuff tends to be either too personalized, too vulgar, too esoteric or just too silly to fall under the "we are looking for" submissions guidelines of most publications.

I do human interest stuff, mostly. My fiction is stilted and awkward. I do better with what's right in front of me.

You could go here and see: The Amazing Stay-At-Home Mom With A Brain (http://hergrace.blogspot.com) .

I also have some poetry, but I don't know if you can get into it from this:

musings (http://banshees.blogspot.com)

The poetry is pretty flowery.

[Smartypants]

Originally posted by sparticle
Well, see, that's it, right there. My friends and family love my stuff, and i am always being told that I ought to write professionally, but the difficulty there is that my stuff tends to be either too personalized, too vulgar, too esoteric or just too silly to fall under the "we are looking for" submissions guidelines of most publications.


This is exactly what I don't understand! Aren't the same people -- friends and family -- who like your writing, the ones who read newspapers and magazines?

(My company produces promotions for the financial services industry, and I'm constantly trying to explain to clients that just because there's a perception that people like retirement plan administrators are REALLY boring, they're still human beings and respond to the same things "normal" people do. When we produce promotions that appeal to real people, rather than ones that are created to fit some idea of what's acceptable for the financial professional, we have tremendous success.)

Even editors -- if THEY like a piece, why do they think it would be inappropriate for their readers?

I didn't read through everything on your blog, but what I did read is exactly the type of thing that daily newspapers SAY they're looking for. The San Francisco Chronicle has a much more unusual tone that it has in the past, trying to appeal to a younger audience and also trying to print things with some relevance to their readers. The result in the past 6-12 months is a hipper tone to to the columns they print (notably in their Datebook section where the entertainment and human interest articles appear).

Have you triedd submitting to the dailies?

My problem with the whole Blog phenom, and the proliferation of writing sites (especially travel-related ones) is that I think good writers should be compensated. I think there's the idea that just appearing online is reward enough, and online sites take great advantage of that.

[sparticle]

I've submitted to the locals until I 'm paralyzed with frustration, but this is still a pretty parochial market. Maybe the dailies in other cities. Hey! Thanks for the idea! (slapping forehead) :)

[Smartypants]

Here's one (http://pacedesign.com/miscpix-n-stuff/CheeseChrons.pdf) that I've been trying to get published, with no success. I suppose it comes off as a glorified blog, but I tried to make it more universally interesting than the original Paris travelogue that went to friends. The travel editor of one major daily told me it was "too quaint, ilke something out of a 1940s New Yorker." Well, sheesh! In the 1940s, the New Yorker was publishing Janet Flanner's "Letter from Paris" and it was one of the magazine's signature series. While I'm flattered by the compliment, it leaves me perplexed.

If you have any ideas for places this could go, please let me know! :)

[sparticle]

It's brilliant! It's amusing without being "all-funny", and it's informative without being dull. I love it!

There has to be a travel magazine, a gourmet magazine, somebody who will publish that. It's too good NOT to!

[Smartypants]

Well thanks! I just sent it off for the umpteenth time, but again, I think editors don't want to publish anything not formula. No one is interested in oddball stuff, so no breath-holding is going on at chez Smartypants. :: pessimist sigh ::

[sparticle]

Originally posted by Smartypants
Well thanks! I just sent it off for the umpteenth time, but again, I think editors don't want to publish anything not formula. No one is interested in oddball stuff, so no breath-holding is going on at chez Smartypants. :: pessimist sigh ::

Well, you never know.

Wait...you always know! You're....Smartypants, for God's sake! What am I saying?

What I mean is, best of luck -- certainly it deserves publication. :)

[lapietra]

I enjoyed this too - however, I can sort of see the editor's point - the language and the tone is pretty formal compared to the writing one sees in many magazines today, even the New Yorker or Vanity Fair.
Having said that - the "voice" reminds me *very much* of the two brothers on "Frasier" - I wonder if there would be any way to convert this to a character in a novel or short story?

[dinzdale]

When Harry met Larry ???

[Smartypants]

Cool! You know any TV people? You can be my agent and pitch it to some studios. (Aren't you in LA?)

Two hapless travelers with mediocre language skills and an appetite for raw milk cheeses traipse around the globe finding the absurdity in nearly everything they do. Lots of snappy patter and spectacular international locations in every episode.

Hasn't "Friends" been cancelled? Maybe there's an open time-slot!

Who'll play the leads?

:D

[Smartypants]

Originally posted by dinzdale
When Harry met Larry ???

I like it. Lala -- when you pitch it around town, list Dinz as a consultant or an associate producer, or whatever show biz people call it, ok?

[lapietra]

Originally posted by Smartypants
Cool! You know any TV people? You can be my agent and pitch it to some studios. (Aren't you in LA?)

Two hapless travelers with mediocre language skills and an appetite for raw milk cheeses traipse around the globe finding the absurdity in nearly everything they do. Lots of snappy patter and spectacular international locations in every episode.

Hasn't "Friends" been cancelled? Maybe there's an open time-slot!

Who'll play the leads?

:D

:p
I know no one and nothing... :D However, that's a *much* better premise than some of the crap that gets on TV... ;)